By the time you sift the truth from the spin, and the facts from the rhetoric, time and again the choice of government always boils down to... who do people believe in the most?
In show business, having that elusive “something” which will turn you into a star has come to be known as the X factor. In politics, that indefinable quality also exists – let’s call it credibility – and it’s the key to the power that politicians yearn for. The way I see it, however, the credibility factor for both parties hangs in the balance.
For Labour it’s because, no matter what its leader says or does, it still has to prove itself as a party ready to govern.
For the Nationalist Party, it’s simply a case of having run out of steam; with its best days behind it, it is now a mere shadow of the once unstoppable force it used to be.
Yucky
I didn’t watch any of the budget speeches, so when someone told me that Gonzi referred to Muscat as “jaqq” (yuck) I couldn’t just rely on hearsay. Wanting to check it out for myself, I watched the recording and found that what he actually said was “dan hu jaqq, jaqq fil-politika....” He was referring to what he described as a misleading tactic when Muscat listed a number of projects which were not completed, but which Gonzi insists were.
Now this word in Maltese can mean yucky – like when kids don’t want to eat their vegetables and whine jaaaqq. But in the context used by the Prime Minister, jaqq is often used contemptuously to refer to crass behaviour and people whom you consider to be beneath you. Well anyway, that is how touchy Labour supporters interpreted it, and you can’t really blame them for feeling offended. It’s a word that is bound to trigger old grievances when anything associated with Labour was deemed second-class or worse. The old tags of ignorance, vulgarity and coarseness associated with the Labour Party are still very hard to shake off, which explains why so many people who are none of these things still shy away from publicly declaring themselves to be Labour voters. It’s not because they’re ashamed of their beliefs; it’s because the fear of being tarred with the stigma of jaqq is still too close to the surface for them to be vocal and proud about their voting preference. One would hope that this ugly prejudice would be gradually fading away but, hearing Dr Gonzi, I realised that sometimes it takes only one word to bring decades of political bigotry flooding back into our consciousness.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister’s decision to go down this route is just that – unfortunate. Rather than burying this age-old tribalism rooted in social class distinction, he seemed to be fanning the flames of class hatred.
It wasn’t just the jaqq word either. There was the remark that “we don’t want to go back to the old Socialist ways...”
There were all the personal digs at Muscat himself “hareg ta’ hmar” (“he came out looking foolish” – literally, “like an ass”) and the condescending disparaging tone: “we need to pull his ears a bit...” making the Labour leader sound like a naughty child.
I was also a little surprised to hear Gonzi having to resort to schoolyard mockery, saying that everything about Muscat is artificial, with “all his ties and make-up”. I wonder who is advising him to use this tactic.
Most of all, Gonzi’s speech once again confirmed that the Nationalist Party would prefer the spectre of the 1980s to still linger over us, as heavy and impenetrable as the fog we saw this past week.
“Is-sewwa jirbah zgur (righteousness will prevail) does not suit you, you shouldn’t use it,” Gonzi admonished Joseph Muscat, this time referring to Eddie Fenech Adami’s old war cry which brought him to power in 1987 and which Muscat has cheekily hijacked as his own.
“You shouldn’t copy it, it sets a lot of people’s teeth on edge, when you say it, it sounds false and arrogant because it denies the facts of all that happened – it insults all those who were victims of those times.”
This was followed by the usual spiel about what happened 40 years ago, which was incongruous in what was supposed to be a speech about the budget.
Of course Muscat’s use of the famous phrase is debatable. I assume he is going for a tongue-in-cheek appropriation of the word, turning the tables on those who used it so self-righteously but who have, in turn, so very badly let down the people who voted for them. I suppose using it amuses him, as can be seen by his smile every time, but by repeatedly using it he is coming across as smarmy.
But to the average voter all this tit-for-tat and childish scoring of points is very wearying.
In the end, for most of us, it means nothing. It is the facts we are paying attention to.
Facts please
The facts are that, according to Eurostat, retail sales in Malta are at an all time low, making it the worst hit country in Europe, except for Latvia.
The fact is that the government owes a total of e17.40 million to 74 importers of medicine.
Pending payments for work carried out at Mater Dei Hospital amount to e5,839,077.
A report released this week says that 57,440 individuals were found to be at risk of poverty in a Survey of Income and Living Conditions carried out in 2007.
This government wishes us to believe that we have never had it so good, but people look in their wallets and purses by the third week of the month and all they have left is a handful of euro coins. But restaurants are always full! People keep buying new cars! Sure, of course, but this is thanks to credit cards and bank loans, and as we know from other countries that are “all maxed out”, going down that road is not exactly wise.
SR Technics announced with much fanfare that it would create 350 jobs... by 2014. Don’t blame us if we’re cynical, Mr Prime Minister, especially when such news comes hot on the heels of what looks like the fizzling out of the SmartCity dream, with all its promises of IT jobs ready for the taking.
I’m so tired
The fact is that Lawrence Gonzi tried to put on a brave face during his budget speech, attempting to gloss over the fact that this administration is at an all time low in the popularity stakes.
In his rebuttal to Muscat’s speech, he used every trick in the book, and attempted to press all the right buttons, trying to stir his listeners so that they will come back on his side. The problem was that, although his were fighting words, he looked downright haggard, as if he has been through the wringer. Despite trying to instil “courage” (his words), his appearance spoke more of a man facing defeat. He seemed weary, heaving sighs at various points in his speech as if he is just fed up with the whole thing. It was not a very inspiring performance.
He looked as we say in Maltese, mahruq... quietly seething and frustrated with a situation that is now out of his control.
Most of all, if he thought that with his speech he had his pulse on what the nation is feeling, it is obvious that he has been taking the temperature of the wrong patient.
[email protected]